My Unreasonably Healthy Purchase

*I want to say upfront that this post is not a promotion for Landmark or their techniques, I’m just telling the story of how they brought me to make changes in my life. Also, please excuse the lack of photographs and extensive writing 😉

I am trying really hard to be unreasonable for the things I really want. “Being unreasonable” is a Landmark thing. It’s basically the idea that we have a lot of goals or things we want to do but we always create a list of reasons why we can’t do it. We create so many reasons in our mind why something won’t work, that they all sound perfectly legitimate…until you really listen to your reasons. What I’ve learned is to double check all of my reasons and figure out if it’s just better to be unreasonable and go for it.

Here’s my example: I want to join a gym so that I can work out regularly. I had a million and one reasons why this wasn’t possible:

1) I am flat broke. Well now you all know! Between not having a job for 8 months, being in graduate school and the move, money is a bit tight around here. (Everyone is getting homemade gifts this year).

2) Working outside is free, so why pay for a gym. For course then I have all sorts of reasons for not working out regularly eventhough this is free, including but not limited to: it’s raining, it’s cold, i’m tired, it’s dark out, it’s hilly and I get shin splints. –Sooo many stupid reasons going on there.

3) I don’t have time. Between working practically full-time and attempting to work on my thesis, blog, handmade goods, baby blanket for my sister and then let’s face it– the hours I spend checking out other blogs, news, deals, and facebook online– I am just waaay too busy to fit this in.

Anyways, you get the point. I have all sorts of reasons. So over the past few months that we’ve been here, I’ve been researching all the gyms in my area and found one with pretty basic amenities that is walking distance from my house. On yelp, someone had said you can get a year membership for about $29/mo or $348/yr. This is a pretty decent price for a gym membership, yet it still stopped me because it said you have to pay for 1 year up front. And like I said, money is TIGHT. Anyways, I still felt stuck and wouldn’t go.

THEN, this Monday night at my Landmark Forum there was this guy who was talking about how he made a commitment to himself to start going back to the gym. He is a very analytical thinker but finds it hard when his workouts are so focused around numbers and plans. He said that it made it seem more like a chore and he would use it as an excuse not to go. Yet in the last two weeks he decided that his main commitment, no matter what, would be to just get himself to the gym– not to worry about how good or planned a workout he had, but to just make sure he got there. There were days when he would do everything he could not to go: read an entire book, play on the computer, etc. but then he knew that all he had to do was get himself there and everything else would fall into place. As a result, he went 7 times in the last two weeks without even realizing it. Every time he goes, he checks-in on Facebook. This helps him keep track without the constant worry of if he went enough times. Seems pretty simple, right?

I think sometimes we forget how simple things can be because we are constantly building up reasons as to why they are so hard. Let your reasons go and I promise you will get what you really want.

So after hearing that story, I was inspired. On Tuesday night right after work, I finally took the 10 minute walk to the gym and signed up for a membership. The best part is that I was able to get the student rate at $16.50/mo! I’m pretty sure you can’t beat that price. That comes out to $199/year and they have installment plans so you don’t have to pay all at once because you know, us students don’t have that sort of pocket change lying around.

I have been very inspired to get into weight-lifting by one of my favorite blogs, DailyGarnish and hope to do more of it at the gym. So today after work I had my gym orientation and then my first workout! One of the personal trainers also gave me some tips on cardio interval training which I thought I would share here.

Maximum Heart Rate (HR) = 220 – your age (mine is 195)

Warm-up HR should be 55% of your maxium HR (107)

Target HR during workout should be between 65% & 90% (127 & 176)

When doing intervals on a treadmill or elliptical, you should range between the high and low end of your target HR. This gives you the most beneficial workout. Apparently, a steady paced workout shows effects for 12 to 24 hours while interval workouts are effective for 24 to 48 hours.

In my trial of this system today, I found that the warm-up HR was super slow and that during my warm-up I was much closer to the lower part of my target HR. I then found that my HR during the workout, even when trying out different intervals, ranged from about 155 to 170.

Sorry if all the number talk is boring! I hope to share more about different weigh-lifting & exercise ball moves as I learn and grow through my time at the gym. I want to tell you all about my gym exploits to hold myself accountable for my actions and goals and also to show others how a simple choice to be unreasonable can be.

With that said, any weight-lifting tips or moves would be much appreciated!

Here are some photos from another unreasonable act. The sunset was absolutely GORGEOUS on my drive home today so I stopped by the side of the road and may have invaded someone’s yard to take these photos. The clouds separated the bright orange/yellow sunset from the deepening blues of night. In the first photo, if you look to the right, you can see the Olympic Mountains! In the second picture on the left hand side, you can see the space needle. Sorry the photos aren’t the best, I took them with my phone.

A great tip on learning to be unreasonable is to try to do at least one unreasonable thing every day.

I love this concept. I’ve been trying to get back into exercise to work off this momma belly fat… but of course I have as many reasons as anybody else not to go to the gym. Well, 2 days ago I went to our apartment’s gym, and of course, the only free machines were out of order. I could have easily just gone home and said screw it, at least I tried! But instead, since I was out anyway, I just jogged around the apartment complex! Turns out it was a beautiful night, and I would have completely missed out if I had just stayed at home and been lazy. 🙂

Email Subscription

Confession: This was actually last weekend, but the point and the photos are still the same 🙂 Enjoy! We had one of those rare winter Seattle weekends full of sunshine. These happen a few times throughout the winter and they are always such a nice surprise. Of course, everyone in the entire city had to... Read More

Recently I’ve been working to up my bean consumption to aid my digestive system. This was recommended by my nutritionist. I’ve made black beans and white beans from scratch and this week I’ll be making chickpea croutons. As I was thinking about what else I could do, I remembered a recipe one of my friends... Read More

Back in September 2013, I traveled to Manzanita, Oregon to spend some time with friends in a beautiful beach house. I really enjoyed taking photos and felt inspired by this place. If you’ve never been, the Oregon coast is one of those “must see” regions. There’s just something very magical about the tiny coves of... Read More

I made fried plantains for the first time along with “puerto rican” black beans. This meal reminded E & I of Venezuela, which made us very happy. I put puerto rican in quotes because I followed a general recipe that said it was puerto rican but I’m not sure how accurate that was. Also, I... Read More

For my 12 books in 2014 goal, I decided that the books I read should all be books I already own. See, I’m kind of a book hoarder. When I was in school, I would long for the days when I could just read books for fun and I would buy them preemptively, just waiting... Read More

In 2013, Evan and I hiked a lot of the major “must see” trails in the area, however; there’s still a long list of trails and mountains we’d love to climb. Lucky for us there are a ton of trails about 30-45 minutes from our home. It’s so easy to plop yourself right in the... Read More

I’ve got a whole lot of goals for 2014 and I thought it would be nice to share some of them here and track my progression. Since there are 12 months in year, I’ve decided to center many of my goals around this number. The year of twelves. Reflecting on the past year, I realized... Read More

This time last year I set some pretty major goals for myself in the upcoming year. It was a daunting list, full of big dreams that I hoped would be a reality. I’d like to share what those goals were and how I did on them. Before I do, I just wanted to say that... Read More

I stopped by the Ballard Farmer’s Market this weekend to purchase some goods for a gift. I also managed to get some good things for myself. Green onions. Bag of turnips. 3 peppers. Golden beets. 2 Bartlett pears. 2 cold season peaches. 2 Italian plums. First of all, can we talk about the purple pepper?!... Read More

I’ve had several people asking me about how the “No Poo” method has actually been working for me & how I do it. So I thought I would share a little update. In case you’re wondering, “No Poo” means I am not using either shampoo or conditioner to clean my hair. First things first, everyone’s... Read More